Desert moss could be the key to terraforming Mars, according to a recently published study by Chinese scientists.
Syntrichia caninervis (S. caninervis), a moss found in extreme desert environments from Tibet to Antarctica, is cited as a “pioneer plant” for creating a livable environment because of its extraordinary resilience. AnthemScientists basically believe that this plant can enrich the rocky surface of the planet and enable other plants to grow.
Several studies have explored alternative possibilities for terraforming these seeds, such as mosses and lichens. “However, plants such as mosses offer important benefits for terraforming, including stress tolerance, high capacity for photoautotrophic growth, and the potential to produce significant amounts of biomass under harsh conditions,” the team behind the new study wrote in the paper.
Mosses are believed to be the first true plants to grow on land SoilIn this way, they have developed a tolerance to extreme stress that allows them to survive in the very harsh primitive environment of our planet.
So how extreme are we talking about?
Relating to: If alien terraforming activities are emitting greenhouse gases, our telescopes could detect it.
Algae trials
The scientists subjected entire S. caninervis plants to conditions typically found on Mars: high doses of gamma radiation, low oxygen, extreme cold, and drought. They reported that the plants could withstand combinations of these conditions, even recovering within seconds after losing more than 98% of their water content—”desiccation” was the term used. Perhaps even more surprising was the plant’s ability to recover and sprout new branches after five years in a freezer at -80 degrees Celsius (-112 degrees Fahrenheit), or a month in liquid nitrogen (-195.8 degrees Celsius; -320.44 degrees Fahrenheit).
“The unique morphological features of S. caninervis, such as twisted leaves, conserve water by minimizing surface area and reducing transpiration, and the awns provide effective photoprotection from intense UV radiation, extreme temperatures, and water loss,” the team wrote. “Meanwhile, the cell wall, cell membrane, and chloroplast and membrane structure remain intact even in a completely dehydrated condition.”
Under stress, S. caninervis enters a state of “selective metabolic dormancy” and strategically preserves key metabolites, products of cellular metabolic pathways required for its rapid resurrection. “For example, S. caninervis plants maintain high levels of sucrose and maltose after stress; these sugars serve as osmotic agents and protectants that help maintain and stabilize cellular architecture,” the scientists wrote. “The sugars then provide the energy needed for rapid recovery after recovery from stressful conditions.”
Stress also triggers genes that code for photoprotective proteins and enzymes that help scavenge harmful reactive oxygen species produced under radiation. “Multilayered tolerance [provides] “It provides protection under stressful conditions and enables rapid cellular repair and recovery of physiological activity when conditions suitable for growth occur,” the team said.
Scientists say these findings lay the groundwork for building sustainable human habitats beyond Earth. Whether that’s an exaggeration will depend on future experiments and may not even be achievable in our lifetimes, but a key element missing from the discussion is not the feasibility of the science, but the ethics behind it.
Do humans belong on Mars?
The concept of terraforming another planet is nothing new and has its roots in science fiction. And, while the concept has been romanticized and bandied about in the media recently, there are serious concerns about the extraterrestrial societal consequences that would result from completely converting an entire planet for human habitation.
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In his article titled The The Thorny Ethics of Planetary Engineering, for example, astrophysicist and NASA researcher Erika Nesvold sums up the dilemma quite clearly: “The goal of terraforming is to deliberately create an entire ecosystem on a global scale, which would likely destroy any existing ecosystem,” she writes. “Terraforming technology may become applicable even before we can definitively determine whether extraterrestrial life exists on the planet or moon we hope to transform.
“But let’s say we find evidence of microbial life on a planet like Mars,” he continued. “Should that rule out Mars as a target for terraforming? Should we avoid settling on Mars altogether?”
The study was as follows: published In The Innovation magazine on July 1.